Video: Giving disabled children a voice in Vanuatu

An uplifting story, for a change: Vanessa, a young disabled girl, describes her life in a rural village in Vanuatu.

The video was produced by Project Zero, a global organisation that looks for ways to improve the daily lives and legal rights of people with disabilities.

According to Project Zero, children like Vanessa

“often experience communication barriers, and data suggests that as a result they experience significant disadvantages, including: diminished rates of school attendance, retention, and advancement; lower rates of employment; increased poverty; and poor access to health care and assistive devices. Furthermore, governments and service providers do not seek the views of children with disabilities because they are often viewed as too hard to engage.”

In response, Project Zero has been helping give children with disabilities the means to communicate about their life priorities and about human rights issues affecting them, using information and communications technology (ICT).

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This video was produced as part of the ‘Voices of Pacific Children with Disability’ project, conducted by Deakin University, Save the Children, the Vanuatu Disability Promotion and Advocacy Association, and the PNG Assembly of Disabled Persons. This project has been awarded one of the 99 most innovative practices by the Zero Project (Vienna). This small video, directed and filmed by Kasimir Burgess, is one of three (two in Vanuatu and one in PNG) that highlights the stories of children with disability, methods to better understand their needs and aspirations, and the vision of a more inclusive society. Thank you to all the children and families who took part in this project, and shared their hopes and dreams. Hopefully this assists governments and organisations to seek more resources to support children and adults with disability to be the productive members of their communities that they want to be. For more information and to see the other films, visit the project website: http://www.voicesofchildrenwithdisability.com